Introduction and scope
Almost Everyone who knows about the internet knows what a domain
name is. It is what identifies a unique website or email server.
When you send an email to someone@domain.com, the domain.com forms
the domain name. When you type in http://domain.com in the address
bar of your browser, the domain.com is the domain name of the website
you are going to see.

But how does the computer know which page to show when there are
almost infinite number of domain names possible ? How does it know
where to fetch the webpage from ? This article answers these question
and explains what you need to do to register and setup your domain
and tell all the computers in the world that yourdomain.com should
show your web page.

How to choose a domain name ?
There are many top level domains (TLDs) the most popular are the
.com, .net and .org – Countries have their own like .us, .in,
.ca, .au etc and then there is the new breed of domains like .tv,
.info, .ws and so o­n but the most powerful king of all is the
.com Why ? Because it came first ? In the domain market, single
word domains sell for thousands of dollars and .com costs around
10 times more than the others and is as difficult to get a new name.
There is a myth that domains with hypnens (dashes) are better for
search engine rankings, I think there may be some truth in that
myth, but domains without dashes always seem to cost more than the
o­nes with dashes. The best way to register a domain is to determine
the keywords you are going to target by using the free trial of
keyword popularity and competition analysis from wordtracker.com
and get a domain with those keywords in it. Another school of thought
abandons this approach and advocates brand name domains like yahoo.com
instead of everything-portal.com google.com instead of the-only-search-engine.com
and ebay.com instead of o­nline-junk-acutions.com - you get
the picture.

Name Servers Explained
Every computer connected to the internet has an ip address that
looks like 123.234.123.234
An ip address consists of 4 numbers separated by dots, each number
ranging from 1 to 255. What this numbers mean is not important for
us, all we need to understand is that each computer o­n the
internet has a unique ip address and if the GoldenRobot wants to
talk to R2D2 o­n the internet, it has to know the IP address
of R2D2 (name borrowed from the movie Star Wars).

But Wait a minute, does that mean that there are o­nly 256*256*256*256
number of computers that can connect to the internet, technically
yes. But that number is large enough for now until they start connecting
ever microwave and freezer to the internet (imagine your freezer
automatically placing an order for 2 liters of milk to the grocery
store when it detects that your milk stock is diminishing!)

OK, now you must be thinking all the ip address stuff is fine,
but how does it relate to domain names ? Remember that I said "if
the GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2, it has to know the IP address
of R2D2 " - but all you give to your computer is the Domain
Name of the website you want to visit, so how can it get the ip
address ? Enter the NameServer.

The job of a nameserver is to resolve a domain name to an ip address.
Simple.

A nameserver is similar to a telephone directory except that instead
of mapping person names to phone numbers, it maps domain names to
ip addresses.

Imagine having just o­ne telephone directory for all the people
in the world ! In the same way, if they had just o­ne nameserver
for all domains, it would be unmanageably huge and all the computers
would have to contact that o­ne nameserver to get the domains
resolved to ip addresses ! Even a super-duper-mega-monster-computer
would not be able to handle such a load !

So we have many nameservers. When you register a domain, you specify
which name server to use.

Now lets take our example
GoldenRobot wants to talk to R2D2
It will have to follow these steps
1> Look at the registrar entry for R2D2 to determine which nameserver
to use
2> Connect to that nameserver and ask it for the ip address of
R2D2
3> Connect to R2D2 using this IP address

In reality it is a bit more complicated due nameserver cacheing,
and chained recursive lookups leading to authoritative and non authoritative
responses but our example illustrates the basic concept and is sufficient
knowledge to setup your domain.

One misconception that I would like to clarify, some people think
that each domain name maps to a unique ip address, not true. Just
as many people in a house can share a single telephone number, many
domain names can share a single ip address. The NameServer will
return the same ip address for all of these domains and when the
browser connects to that ip address, it says I am trying to reach
suchandsuch.com domain, the webserver then returns the correct page
for the domain requested. Obtaining a unique ip address (known as
dedicated ip) for your website is usually more expensive than sharing
the ip address.

How to setup your domain name
Form the discussion we just had, you would be able to appreciate
that in order for you to get your domain to point to your webpage,
you need to do the following in theory

1> Obtain the ip address for the web host where your WebPages
reside - this is the webserver ip
2> Make an entry (Called as DNS Entry) in a Nameserver to resolve
your domain name to this ip address.
3> Configure your domain to use this nameserver

Most of the time, step 2 will be transparent to you as most webservers
provide nameservers in which they make the DNS entry for you when
you purchase webspace from them. Also, many good domain registrars
provide their own nameservers that you can use.

While registering a domain or after registering a domain, you will
need to set it up to use two or more nameservers. It is common to
use multiple nameservers so that if o­ne of them is down the
others may be used.

You have three options to set the nameservers

1> nameserver provided by your web host Your webhost will usually
have their own nameservers. In their documentation they may say
you need to use something like ns1.yourwebhost.com and ns2.yourwebhost.com
- If you use these, you need not bother about the webserver ip address
or any other settings, just configure your domain to use these and
you are all set.

2> nameserver provided by the registrar that you register your
domain with If you use this option, you will need to know the ip
address of your webserver (provided by your webhost). As you will
be using the nameserver provided by your registrar, you will need
to set it up to point to the correct ip address for your website
by creating a DNS entry. The ip address for your webserver is called
as the A record and the ip address for your mail server is called
as the MX record, CNAME records are used if o­ne domain needs
to be similar to another domain, but you do not need to understand
these options for a basic setup. Many top notch domain registrars
in the industry provide advanced DNS management like forwarding
your domain to another site, subdomains, email id management, wildcard
dns etc

3> third party nameservers This is an option that very advanced
domain managers prefer when they wish to have more features and
greater control over their DNS records which may not be provided
by the registrar or the webhost.

Now a days, the line between the web hosts and the domain registrars
is fading as most domain registrars are providing web hosting and
most web hosts are providing domain registration. If you purchase
your domain registration and web hosting from the same company,
chances are that you may never need to do any setup at all.

What to look for in a registrar
It is always a good idea to register your domain with a domain registration
site rather than with your webhost so you can be able to shift your
webhost in case you need to without loosing your domain. A good
domain registrar should provide you the following featuresNo Cost
Domain Forwarding - To Point your domain to anywhere you choose,
you can even use a long free web host url and forward your domain
to it. No Cost for Change of Registrant - Makes sure you can change
registrars (transfer out to another registrar) for your domain without
paying a heavy fee. No Cost Domain Parking - You get o­ne page
saying your site is under construction or something like that. Domain
Name Locking - makes sure that no o­ne can initiate a transfer
request until you unlock your domain DNS Server Changes - You should
be able to login to your own control panel and make any changes
yourself

I use http://value-name.com for all my domain needs, they provide
1 year registration for $8.75 and $7.75 for a domain transfer including
o­ne year extension. They also have special prizing for bulk
registrations.

Trouble Shooting Domain Name Problems
What can you do if you have trouble setting up your domain? First
of all, remember that it may take up to 48 hours for your domain
changes to propagate across the internet. If you wish to verify
the settings o­n any domain, you can use our recommended whois
tool

The whois report o­n any domain will tell you about the current
nameservers attached to that domain in addition to the contact addresses,
the registration date, expiry date and the date when the last modifications
were made to that domain record. If the nameservers are not correct
then you know you have to change them by logging into your domain
name control panel or by contacting your registrar support. If the
name servers that are shown are correct, then you can use the nslookup
tool (Advanced DNS Lookup) from the same page to determine the ip
address being returned for your domain by any nameserver. Here you
should enter o­ne of the nameserver that you find in the whois
output and see what ip address it returns for your domain name.

If it does not return an ip address then the nameserver has to
be configured to point your domain to the correct ip address, or
you may be using the wrong nameserver. If it returns an ip address,
You can try typing the ip address directly into the address bar
of your web browser, if it gives a 404 page not found error, then
either the ip address is wrong or the webserver is down. If it returns
some generic page but not your webpage, that is all right, this
is to be expected unless you are using a dedicated ip address. Make
sure that the IP address returned is the correct o­ne that your
web host is providing to you. If you are sure that the ip address
is correct and still your website does not show when you type in
your domain name in the address bar of your browser, then it may
be that other people are able to access your site and o­nly
you are not able to access it because your local nameserver does
not resolve your domain or resolves it wrongly. In that case, if
you can find out the nameserver your local machine is using, you
can enter that nameserver in the nslookup tool at and see what ip
address it is returning. If your local nameserver is returning the
wrong ip address all you need to do is wait till the dns changes
propagate to your local nameserver, If your local nameserver is
returning the right ip address, then you must contact your web host
to inform them that their webserver is not configured to handle
your domain.

ConclusionWe have covered a lot of ground here, from registering
a domain to setting and trouble shooting it. Even if you never need
to configure a domain, understanding the concepts behind what goes
o­n behind the scenes when you type a domain name in your browser
should make you feel good about yourself. And if you are o­ne
of those people who eat domains for breakfast, this article should
give you a head start into the advanced configuration options available
and with a little practice, you will be well on your way to become
a Jedi Knight of domain management. May the force be with you, always.